Does anyone have any recommendations for using the Game Boy Interface with a RetroTINK-2X? I've got the GameCube hooked up to the RetroTINK via S-Video. And the RetroTINK outputs to a 1080p plasma. The RetroTINK just is a simple line-doubling scalar that inputs 240p and outputs 480p, letting the TV upscale it to 1080p. The speedrunning edition, with no additional options, seems to work well and looks pretty good. I've tried tweaking some options and they just makes it look worse.

Also, I'm a bit confused what "--zoom=2" means. The GBI outputs 240p, yes? The Game Boy (Color) resolution is only 144 pixels tall. So 2X zoom would be 288 lines, which is more than 240p. Yet it still has large borders, so it really looks like 1X. Or am I misunderstanding what "--zoom" means?

The zoom value is based upon the 480 lines display. In fact, in 240p, you have no option to get integer zoom, unless you get as high as 4x, in which case you would lose too many lines.

If you bought the Retro-TINK-2X because your TV messed with the 480i option, give the 480sf a try, with the GC hooked straight to the TV, then, you'll be able to use the 3x zoom, which will fill the entire height of the screen (in GBA games, at least), and you may even not want to hook the RT2X between your TV and GC again. 8)

Thanks for the reply. I've never heard of 240sf. I assume that corresponds to --scan-mode=quasi-interlace and Progressive segmented frame ? I'll try that out. Does that mean it'll run effectively at 30ps, instead of 60fps?

FWIW, the RetroTINK can handle 480i, and de-interlace it to 480p. Or it can pass it through directly as 480i. Both handle 3x zoom. But the RetroTINK does bob deinterlacing, which I found a bit distracting, as the image appears to "shimmer". The TV itself does an okay job at deinterlacing 480i itself but I don't know how much lag that introduces.

You misread, I was writing about 480sf. It's a quasi-interlace and run at 30fps at the expense of 1 more frame lag, but it's an "integer" frame skipping, far less noticeable than 50Hz to 60Hz. Sprite animations in 2D games are rarely made on a 60Hz basis anyways (not even for transparency effect in GB games, tested with Zelda Oracles).

De-interlacing 480i to 480p is not any better than 240p to 480p, as long as the lines are doubled in any case, 3x zoom will look ugly. If your TV does a good job with the 480i, stick to it and get rid of the retrotink, mine mixes even and odd frames as if it was a progressive signal, so SF mode helps getting better picture at the (relative) expense of framerate.

In some cases, GCVideo devices may introduce less lag then analog inputs, that depends on the TV. I personnally lost 2 frames of lag through HDMI over RGB input on mine which is quite an improvement.

If the lag is a big concern for you, look for a CRT or an unbuffered flat panel.

Yes, sorry I did misread. But I've still never heard of 480sf. I assume that corresponds to --scan-mode=quasi-interlace and Progressive segmented frame?

I did try --scan-mode=quasi-interlace, and it does not look good at all, as the 30fps is really noticeable. I was playing Link's Awakening DX and immediately noticed it on Bow-Wow's chain. The RetroTINK can de-interlace 480i to 480p without line doubling, and 3x looks pretty good. But it does have that shimmer, which I find really distracting.

I wouldn't say lag is a big concern, but it is a concern. Switching to a CRT is absolutely not worth it, for me. But I'd rather not add any more lag than is absolutely necessary. I will personally take 2x at 240p without any shimmer rather than 3x at 480i, since it shimmers through the RetroTINK and adds some lag in pass-through/direct to TV. I was using a Framemeister and actually prefer the RetroTINK in almost every way.

So, in the end, I'm using the speedrunning edition without any additional options (2x zoom). It still looks really good!